smittys
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since August 2017
Posts: 165 
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Post by smittys on Aug 23, 2017 10:38:00 GMT -5
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller 
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,504
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Post by Sabre52 on Aug 23, 2017 16:04:46 GMT -5
Man oh man, that is a bunch of cuts!
Just a word of advice for you and you can take it or leave it. As you progress in the hobby, you will discover that sawing takes a lot of time and also costs a lot of money in blade time. I have found proper vetting of material "before you begin cutting" is very important. I often chip, wet, sort, resort etc before I cut. I eliminate questionable stuff ( unless I'm just awful curious about what's inside) fractured stuff especially if it looks to be a blade breaker, and stuff that just does not look interesting enough to waste cab time on. When I do begin cutting, I check the first cutoff very carefully to see if it's worth spending the time to slab it up. Unfortunately, lapidary is a slow art where every phase is time consuming and especially if you are "rough rich" it's simply more efficient to only saw the best specimens you have. I started out sawing everything but then I got old and time became much more important *L*, so now I spend saw time only on stuff I find really interesting.....Mel
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Post by stardiamond on Aug 23, 2017 17:22:55 GMT -5
Man oh man, that is a bunch of cuts! Just a word of advice for you and you can take it or leave it. As you progress in the hobby, you will discover that sawing takes a lot of time and also costs a lot of money in blade time. I have found proper vetting of material "before you begin cutting" is very important. I often chip, wet, sort, resort etc before I cut. I eliminate questionable stuff ( unless I'm just awful curious about what's inside) fractured stuff especially if it looks to be a blade breaker, and stuff that just does not look interesting enough to waste cab time on. When I do begin cutting, I check the first cutoff very carefully to see if it's worth spending the time to slab it up. Unfortunately, lapidary is a slow art where every phase is time consuming and especially if you are "rough rich" it's simply more efficient to only saw the best specimens you have. I started out sawing everything but then I got old and time became much more important *L*, so now I spend saw time only on stuff I find really interesting.....Mel My wife bought me a saw in 2007 and I didn't start using it until 2014 when I retired. I had limited time and would rather spend it cabbing than slabbing. I had collected some nice material to slab and slabbed all of it. The best thing about having a slab saw is converting rough to slabs which will add value when the material is good. A lot of rough buying is grab bag and you can only take a guess if the material is worth slabbing. I bought a large chunk of laguna lace that produced some nice slabs and an FRB of Montana which produced mixed results. When I take the first cut, I decide whether the slabs are saleable or cabable. I stop when I decide the next cut isn't worth the trouble. I want to spend my time slabbing and cabbing the best material. The best material costs the most, so sometimes I am willing to take a gamble. |
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,723
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Post by Fossilman on Aug 25, 2017 20:11:23 GMT -5
I'm pretty fussy anymore,on what I cut..
I won't cut junk rocks for people either..
I just say no...
I stock up on the good stuff and always classify my material now..
Blades are crazy expensive,so is oil and etc...
Still fun when it gets going and your seeing great material coming off your saw...
Nice cutting you did... Thumbs up
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2017 23:50:43 GMT -5
Cut cut cut until your daddy takes the tbird away....
As others have alluded to, you will cut a bunch of shit and occasionally a gem. As the gens become more frequent you learn the shit before you cut it. So the quality of cuts gets better.
I'm no genius and have far less experience than many (far less). This means I still cut shit. Just less of it. I have gotten to a point that now, when I get shit, I am surprised and spend an hour analyzing my mistake so to avoid it again.
For me, the saw is the funnest part of the hobby. So I cut slabs for my girl as long as I can, when I can.
I offer sincere wishes of fun and success!! Keep cutting!
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Post by 1dave on Aug 26, 2017 1:58:34 GMT -5
Man oh man, that is a bunch of cuts! Just a word of advice for you and you can take it or leave it. As you progress in the hobby, you will discover that sawing takes a lot of time and also costs a lot of money in blade time. I have found proper vetting of material "before you begin cutting" is very important. I often chip, wet, sort, resort etc before I cut. I eliminate questionable stuff ( unless I'm just awful curious about what's inside) fractured stuff especially if it looks to be a blade breaker, and stuff that just does not look interesting enough to waste cab time on. When I do begin cutting, I check the first cutoff very carefully to see if it's worth spending the time to slab it up. Unfortunately, lapidary is a slow art where every phase is time consuming and especially if you are "rough rich" it's simply more efficient to only saw the best specimens you have. I started out sawing everything but then I got old and time became much more important *L*, so now I spend saw time only on stuff I find really interesting.....Mel Top advice from a top hand! |
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Nov 15, 2024 17:44:51 GMT -5
Nov 15, 2024 17:44:51 GMT -5
